Irreparable Damage
by Gingerstorm101
Summary: Tony finally gets to see Ziva again, but he's not so happy about it. Angst, oh the angst. Eventually Tiva
1. Chapter 1

He didn't expect to be here at this point in his life; he didn't expect to get a call at three o'clock in the morning from his old Director with the instructions to come in ASAP. And not to mention to find a babysitter once he got into the country.

He had his gut feeling as to why he was called back after so many years, but no one would say a thing to him. Not even Breena who met up with him on the Yard to take the girls to the children's museum.

He takes a few deep breaths before opening the door to the office reception, only to find Vance was standing guard at the door.

"Ah! DiNozzo, there you are." A hand was extended to greet him, and he takes it firmly.

"Director, what is this about?" He asks, curiosity getting the better of him.

The older man smiles sadly. "I'm not your director anymore, Tony." The tension in his shoulders was becoming unbearable, his gut churning. "But I don't know how to explain it. I thought it was better to show you." Taking a step to the side, Vance places one of his hands on the door handle. In a swift motion, he opens the door.

Tony was not expecting the person who was standing in the middle of the room. His eyes harden at the sight. "I'm going to leave you two alone." And with that, Tony's saving grace, his old boss, left.

Walking into the room, he closes the door, slamming it hard enough to make the windows shake. The other person in the room flinches, but doesn't take her eyes off of him. Not moving an inch. Not breathing. And neither was he. He was damn too pissed to even think about breathing.

"Tony, I…" Ziva starts, trailing off when he flares his nostrils.

"Do not even start with me." He grounds out, his hands clenching.

She opens her mouth to say something, but no words ever come out. He watches as she tears her eyes away from him, looking at her feet. He takes the moment to glance her over, to see the bruises on her face and arms. For a second his heart skips a beat, fearing what had happened to her, but he quickly dismisses it.

"How could you? Do you think I would have welcomed you with open arms after what you put me through? After what you put my daughter through?" He growls. "Did you think abandoning my daughter would give you any respect so you could go off and save the world?" He takes a step closer, his shoulders hunched.

She stays where she is, tilting her head up so she can look into his eyes. Was that fear in them? Pain? Sadness? Whatever it was, she deserves it.

"Tony! I was in danger!"

"And do you think putting my daughter through that trauma was a good enough reason to leave her? To drop her off with someone who didn't know of her existence? Knew nothing that would soothe her?" He yells. He half expects half the building to be listening in on their conversation. "By god Ziva, everything you did was inexcusable. Everything!" He throws his hands in the air.

In a small voice, choked up by the hint of tears in her eyes, she whimpers. "I didn't think you were ready."

"No you didn't think!" He snaps, glaring at her. "Everything you did traumatized my daughter. Everything wrong in my daughter's life is because of you." Ziva visibly gulps, shying away from him.

"I-I-I didn't-"

"Of course not, because you didn't think." He turns his back on her, not wanting to watch the tears pouring down her face.

"What is wrong with her?" She whispers to him, crossing her arms over her chest, shielding herself.

Tony spins around on his heels, crossing his own arms. "Everything you expect from a child who has lost a parent. Separation anxiety, bed wetting, believing that it was her fault, just to name a few."

She wipes away a tear, sniffling. "I only did it to protect her, so she wouldn't become a target. And neither would you." She adds quietly.

"You tell that to the little girl who's been in therapy since she was three. To the girl who still thinks everyone who's at the door in her Ima. No matter what her doctor and I have done to tell her that her mother was not coming home." Ziva reaches for him, he knows she wants to touch him, but he takes a step back, away from her reach. Her hand pauses in midair before being retracted.

"I… I will tell her that."

"No you won't."

"What?" She asks, her head snapping back up to look at her.

"You're not going to see her."

"She's my daughter!"

"No." He puts his foot down. "She is my daughter, you gave up that right when you put her on that plane." He wants to break when he sees the fresh tears run down her cheeks again. "I will not let you break her heart all over again. You're lucky that I didn't walk away the moment I laid eyes on you."

"Please Tony…"

"No, you've broken enough hearts to last a lifetime."

He moves to walk away from her, but her hand on his bicep stops him. "I love you, I have always you."

"I had loved you once, but people move on. They change."

"Please, let me change with you," she begs, a slight hiccough in her words. "Trust me."

"You'll have to move the earth before I can trust you again." And with that, he walks out the door, leaving behind him the woman he loved collapsing to her knees and sobbing into her hands.


	2. Chapter 2

She curls up under the covers of her bed, sniffling away the never ending tears that seem to form in her eyes when she hears the front door open and close. Curious, Ziva wipes away the tears with the back of her hand and heads downstairs to see who is in the house with her.

Quietly and swiftly, she tiptoes down the stairs and around the corner to the basement stairs where Gibbs had been working away the last time she talked to him.

He was no longer alone.

She sits where she stood, listening in on the conversation.

"I don't know what to do." It was Tony! Her heart races at the sound of his voice, his angry words still plaguing her mind from that morning.

Gibbs throws down his tools on the table, his back to his former agent, and picks up the bourbon. "You're going to have to do something, DiNozzo." Pouring the two of them glasses, he hands one to the younger man. "I know you're trying to protect your daughter, but she was doing the same."

Tony takes a gulp of the burning liquid before responding. "You don't know what it's like to raise a child who needs therapy cause of a missing parent." His words were cold, hurt.

"No, I don't." Gibbs says, placing his cup on the table. "But I do know what Ziva is going through. To lose both your child and partner, to never see anything but pictures and to have memories of those you love. She went through hell and back just to see you again." The elderly man glares at him. "And you didn't even listen to her."

"I did!" Tony cries, his eyes wide with fiery.

"No you didn't, DiNozzo! You didn't have a conversation; you just yelled at her, berated her. At least she and I talked while she was angry at me. We still worked together to bring Sahar down. But no, you, you treated her like scum beneath your feet." He sneers at him. "You did not act like the loyal friend you used to be."

"No, I became a father."

"And you don't think I am? I spent half the night comforting _my daughter_ because her pigheaded partner couldn't see past the anger on his nose." Gibbs points his finger at him, jabbing it into his shoulder.

Tony looks away, his eyes points up the stairs where he knew Kelly's old bedroom was, and sighs. "It just brought me back to when I was in school… When I was being bullied because I was crying over my mother's death, wishing she could come back. Tali's wish came true, to see her Ima again. As much as I want to make my daughter happy, I don't want to see her heart broken again if Ziva ends up leaving for good. Thinking she was better of working for Mossad than being tied down."

Gibbs takes another drink of the bourbon, visibly relaxed now that the conversation has shifted. "And why do you think she'll do that?" He asks.

Tony sighs again, taking his own sip from the cup. "She spent the last three years away-"

"On the run."

"-from Tali. She's probably used to being on her own by now."

Gibbs doesn't say anything, but wags his finger at him. Walking to the other side of the boat in his basement, he pulls out a box that had Ellie's handwriting on it. "Bishop pulled these out of Ziva's office after she started cleaning them up." Tony takes another gulp of his drink as his former boss walks over to the desk. "They have your name on them."

Tony gulps, his hand starting to shake. His boss sets the box down and moves the lamp over. Inside this box was what looked like hundreds of envelopes addressed to him.

"She says she never read them, that when the time came, they'd be here for you."

He reaches out for one, taking in the familiar handwriting that he had cherished at one time. Maybe even now he still does? But his grudge was still too strong in his heart.

Gibbs steps back, grabbing his stool and handing it to him. "Read." The command was short and simple, and part of him didn't want to read it, that he wanted to go ahead and keep hating her. But that other part, the part that still yearns for her, for her touch, her love, is stronger.

So he opens it.

_May 5th, 2016_

_My dearest Tony,_

_The day I wished for more than anything in this world is finally going to happen, even if it is built upon the darkest. You are going to meet our daughter. I have kept her secret from this world, only telling those who are trustworthy to keep her safe. All of 3 people. But that does not stop my own life from being at risk, and after 3 years of finding myself, of living half the life I wished for, I have to go into hiding. But I can't take our daughter with me. So please Tony, take our daughter with you, protect like I can't, and tell her that Ima loves her every day. Tell her that one day, Ima will return, and we can be a family again._

_With all the love,_

_Ziva._

Tony sucked in a breath. Three years. Three _god damn_ years later he receives this letter from her. It was sent a week before her house blew up, but he's just getting it now. Just how many of them were there?

He opens another one.

_Oct 1st, 2013_

_My dearest Tony…_

_July 10th, 2014_

_Happy birthday to my dearest Tony…_

_June 16th, 2018_

_Happy Father's day to my dearest Tony…_

And they went on and on, most of them had pictures in the folds of the letters. There was a letter for every week for the past 6 years. Why did he never receive them? His heart ached just thinking of all them. He pulls out the photo from the latest letter, and what he saw confused him for a moment until…

He looks closer, behind the couple in the foreground. _There!_ It was him and Tali sitting at the window at a Mom & Pop restaurant. He remembers this day; it was Father's Day when he took his little girl, who had just turned five a couple weeks before that, out for brunch after he surprised her with a new dress. Had… Had Ziva been watching them this entire time? _Stalking them? Spying on them?_

Suddenly Gibbs spoke up. "She showed Ducky the picture she has of Tali with her all the time, keeping her close."

"... Tali always said her Ima was watching over her…" Tony mutters softly, staring down at the picture. He puts it away and grabs another one, this time of Tali riding his shoulders as they walked home from school. Tali was looking at the camera. "I never realized… I knew someone was watching us, but… I always thought it was Orli keeping an eye on me."

Gibbs lands a steady gaze on him. "What are you going to do?"

Tony knew Gibbs was still disappointed in him. But what does the man expect? She abandoned him. Abandoned his daughter. "Tell me why." He nearly begs. "Tell me why she broke Tali's heart?"

Ziva listened for a half an hour as Gibbs told Tony the story as to why she left her daughter behind, fearing the worst when the basement became quiet. She wants nothing more than to hold her little girl again, to whisper in her ear that she'll be alright. That _they'll _be alright. She just had to get through to her former partner.

Her heart starts to race when she hears shuffling and then someone coming up the steps. She freezes, panic setting in as the sound gets closer and closer. She pulls her legs towards her chest, hoping that the little space she gives would hide her from the man coming up the stairs.

There is a large shoe beside her, her eyes locking on it before she slowly raises her head to the man's face. Neither one of them make a sound as they stare into the other's eyes. Green meeting brown.

In a blink of an eye, he's gone.

Ziva huddles on the floor, playing over all the things he could have possibly said to her. And all the things she wishes she could have said to him. But nothing felt right in the moment. And after her learned her story, she no doubt knows that he'd never want to see her face again.


	3. Chapter 3

Nothing but the sound of the ticking of a clock and the brushing of hair on metal filled the room. Not even the possible sound of snoring or heavy breathing from the man on the couch. No. Just the brushing as Ziva cleans her gun. Which she no longer needs, but the action still soothes her nonetheless.

Tonight she couldn't sleep. No amount of tossing and turning, or the counting of sheep, or even the commands of telling herself to get at least six hours of sleep. No. Five hours of sleep. Or even just a two hour nap.

Nothing worked.

So here she was, in Gibbs' dining room, not getting a wink of sleep.

"Go to sleep, Ziver."

She damn well nearly jumps out of her skin at his voice. "I cannot Gibbs." She says, looking over at the man to find his eyes still closed. She narrows her eyes at him, questioning if he was still asleep or just lying there. She turns back to her gun, getting a couple scrapes with her brush when she hears a rustle coming from the living room. Her heart starts to race the split second before she turns around to see the man pulling himself up.

She watches as he walks over to the table Ziva is sitting at, tapping on her bare feet to remove them from the chair they were resting on. They sit there silently, watching each other, waiting for the other to say something.

"You need to sleep, you're going to see him in five hours." His voice was low, rough from the lack of use.

Ziva places the gun down, her heart still racing from the thoughts of seeing her former partner, her former lover, again. His words still haunts her from the last time she spoke to him.

_You'll have to move the earth before I can trust you again._

But, she hopes now that he has her letters addressed to him, he could see everything she has gone through. Everything she has always wanted to say to him, but couldn't bring herself to do so. All her feelings from the moment she said goodbye to him on that tarmac, to her latest one from two weeks ago.

"I have tried, but to no avail." She murmurs, twisting her fingers with one another, and her eyes avoiding his. He stays quiet, watching her as her eyes land on the clock. 3:34 am. "I cannot seem to shut off my brain tonight. My thoughts, they are too strong."

He leans forward, brushes his index finger against her twining digits. "That's your anxiety." She blinks hard, holding her eyes shut as a tear slips out between them. She doesn't bother to wipe it away. "Have you taken one of your pills?"

She nods, sniffling. "Two. They do not seem to work anymore."

Gibbs covers her hand with his large one. "I will see Ducky that we get you a proper prescription, one that is designed for you." She tries to open her mouth to say something, but he gives her a look. _The_ look. "You'll be better once you're on medication that is designed for you, not for someone else." He explains further. She closes her eyes and nods slowly.

The room goes quiet again except for the ticking of that damn clock on the wall. Ziva, however, hardly heard it. Inside her head were all the things she wants to say to Tony, explain to him that she had no choice. That she fought to be with them every day. To protect them.

But each one of those came with a hated response that bit back at her. Telling her that she was worthless. Weak. And one that almost made her cry was when the imagined Tony told her that she should have been killed in the fire.

Gibbs must have seen her tense; his hand raises up to cup her cheek and wiping away the tears that have already fallen. "Go shower, get dressed. I'll take you out for breakfast, Elaine makes one good cup of coffee."

Ziva smiles at her father figure, the only true father that she has left. Or ever had really. With a whispered "thank you" she walks upstairs to get ready for her very stressful day.

McGee sits in his chair that morning, ready to start his day now that he dropped his kids off at preschool. He turns on his computer, and takes a sip of his second coffee of the day. So far, no one was in the bullpen, maybe Gibbs was talking to the director? Or getting a coffee for himself?

But ever since the boss man had Ziva staying with him, he's noticed a change in him. He's been rougher than he has been recently. Maybe he's not getting enough sleep? Or the two of them had yelling matches like they did when she first came back.

Whatever it is, wherever he is, McGee was sure to stay on his good side today.

Just then, he heard the ding of the elevator. Fully expecting Ellie and Nick to walk out together, he peeks over his coffee.

It was Gibbs and Ziva. The latter of the two looked far too disheveled to be here.

He watches as Gibbs gives her a look, and walks to his desk. She looks over at McGee, glancing over at his boss and stops. "Hello McGee." She says softly, offering a small smile. He returns it, greeting her. "Has he come in yet?"

He looks down at his phone, checking the time. 7:45. "Not yet. Are you okay?" She's quiet and he waits to see if she'll respond.

After a moment she does. "I am fine." He doesn't believe her for a second. Underneath her wild hair and baggy shirt, he can see the panic in her bloodshot eyes. He watches as her eyes flick around the room, and he wonders when the last time she had a proper night's sleep. But then, he never spent years away from his children and wife. He would never know what Ziva is going through.

He doesn't comment on the lie she had told him. "What time are you meeting with Ducky?" He asks, taking another sip.

"8:30." Her answer was short, but she does look him in the eye. "I… I better get going. No doubt Ducky wants to chat before we start." He nods, keeping his eye on her. "Goodbye, McGee." And with that, she heads to the conference room.

He starts his work for the day, mostly reading the morning news before he starts the cold case files. He only glances up when his coworkers walk into the bullpen a few minutes later. But nothing brings him out of his concentration until he hears a young voice.

"Uncle Tim!"

His head shoots up. "Tali!" He pushes his chair back as the girl sprints forward and enveloping him in a hug. "You've gotten so big!"

The little girl giggles. "That's cause we only video chat." He looks up to see his old senior field agent, noticing the uneasy feeling in his eyes. No doubt worried about the meeting he was having with Ducky.

"So what are you doing today?" He asks, holding both of her hands in his.

Tali bounces on her heels. "Uncle Jimmy is taking me to the garden. He says he wants to show me the best spots to play and dance!"

McGee brightens at her words, knowing that she isn't in the middle of her parents' conflict. "That sounds awesome! Have your uncle send me pictures." He smiles and leans in closer. "And maybe I'll sneak away to watch you." Tali squeals and wrap her arms around his neck. He looks up to the girl's father, taking in the fact that he was no longer watching his daughter, but the hallway leading to the conference room. "Okay Tali, let's get you downstairs."

Tony snaps out of his thoughts when his daughter grabs his hand and pulls him away. From his seat, McGee watches his friend leave.

The room is tense. And that is putting it lightly.

Neither one of them would look at the other, training their eyes on the elderly man in front of them. Tony clenches his jaw as he watches Ducky pull out his notebook. He squints his eyes to try to read the paper, but it wasn't coming easy for him.

Finally he spoke. "What are we waiting for?" He asks impatiently.

"For Dr. Sloane, my dear boy." He couldn't stop the glare that headed towards the elderly man. He wasn't upset with the doctor, in fact, he listened thoroughly the other day when Tony sat down with him and the box of letters he had taken home with him. He trusted Ducky with his life and his most desired secrets. Ducky was the closest he had to an uncle for the longest time. But who was this Dr. Sloane? Was it this Jack person McGee and Palmer has told them about?

"And you don't have to wait for long!" came a female voice from behind them.

He notices that Ziva had jumped slightly and whipping her head around to a blonde walking into the room wearing a bright pink suit. Tony gives the woman a questioning glance, tracking her as she pulls up a chair beside the retired ME. "Ah! Dr. Sloane!" Ducky greets from his seat. "My dear, how are you?"

"Oh I'm just wonderful, Doctor. And you?"

"Oh as well as you'd expect. In fact-"

"Ducky." Ziva says in a quiet voice, her hands sitting in her lap. "We have an appointment." Tony couldn't help but agree with his ex-partner.

"Ah, right." Ducky clears his throat and folds his hands in front of him. "I have spoken to both of you over the last week, hearing both sides of your story. Now, I have asked Dr. Sloane to sit here with us because it seems that there are some words you two need to say to each other in the calmest of states."

Dr. Sloane, Jack, the woman McGee had told him about, sits back in her chair with her notepad and pen ready.

"Anthony," He says. "Why don't you start? Tell all what you felt when this all started."

Tony gulps, thinking back to all those years ago. But he knew he meant when he first met his daughter. He takes a second long glance at _her_ before he stares at the two before him. "What do you expect? The woman I loved was just blown up and then in 24 hours a child I never knew I had was dropped in my lap." He sends a quick glare over to said woman.

"You were overwhelmed?" Jack asks.

"To put it lightly."

On the other side of the table, Ziva wasn't looking at him, or anyone in the room really. She was staring out of the window.

"I had noticed the clues that were left in my daughter's bag, so I took my daughter back to Israel to find some answers. When I found nothing, I took my last bit of hope to Paris, where we've lived since," He says calmly, but grounds out, "but _she_ didn't give me anything. _She _never showed. Not once leaving behind a message to me. Everything she sent was never to me."

Suddenly she barges in. "How could I tell you? I was on the run!"

"No, you were running! From me, from my daughter, from everyone! You sent letters to this random address every week, but nothing came to my house!" He turns to her and shouts, slamming his on the table. Where has he heard this before? He feels like he's had this conversation before.

"I was being hunted! If they knew I was sending you letters they would have killed you too! Both of you! Or worse." She screams back, leaning forward. "I would have expected you to understand that more than anyone else!"

They glared at each other, Tony was ready to give a reply when Jack interrupted them. "Now, now, that's enough from you. Ziva, why don't you tell us why you never told Tony about your daughter?"

Ziva leans back in her chair, crossing her arms over her stomach. "If he had read those letters, he would know why." She mumbled like a child, not unlike his daughter when the five year old was upset with something.

Tony had read those letters. He memorized them for Pete's sake! Each one of them broke his heart even more than the last, her telling him how much she regrets leaving him on the tarmac just an hour after he boarded and then two months later when she realized she was carrying his child. Every week she wrote how she missed him, but she had already joined back with Mossad.

Tony, put his hands together, leaning towards her, says. "I'd like to hear it from you."

Their audience nods, both taking notes.

The woman sighs, shifting as she crosses her legs. "I had already ruined your life, hurt you in so many ways, I didn't want to burden you with a child when her parents fought."

"Bullshit!"

"Anthony! Language!"

Without skipping a beat at the interruption, he continues. "Ziva, we spent almost every waking hour together. How often did we actually fight?" He gave her a second to blink at him. "If anything we bickered and argued. That is not fighting." His voice hushed, attempting to get the point across. "If we did fight, it was because of the men you were sleeping with."

She huffs and rolls her eyes. "Oh, now we're bringing my choice of men into this?"

Heck yes he is. "Well it seems every time you date someone, a murder is involved." He can see her thinking it over, knowing that he was right. First Roy, who died. Then Michael, who he shot dead. Adam, ugh Adam, even though it was a hookup, it took place after Eli's funeral. Then Ray, who murdered a woman. And even though they didn't officially date, there was that Hoffman guy from when she went undercover, she killed him herself after he murdered four women. Maybe it was a good thing they never officially dated, he would have ended up dead. But then again, when Tali was brought into his life, he and the team killed Kort.

When she glares at him, he knew he hit a nerve. "Oh and like you got a clean track record?"

"At least mine didn't end in bloodshed!"

"Children! Please!" Ducky barges in.

"Shh, it's getting good!"

_What?_ Tony thought, flicking his eyes over to the blond woman in the room. _I thought this woman was __supposed__ to be professional?_

"See! This is exactly what I mean Tony!" Ziva argues. "Every word we've spoken to one another in the last week has been a spit flare!"

"Fire," He sighs, pinching his nose. "It's spit fire, Ziva." He felt his heart twinge a bit, remembering how much he loved correcting her.

She grounds her teeth at him. "Whatever."

"May we please go back to having a calm conversation?" Ducky asks. Tony turns in his chair to face the older man, Ziva mirroring his position. "Thank you." He waits nearly a moment before starting again, giving a glance to Jack before he starts. "Ziva, if your life wasn't in danger, would you have told Tony?"

Tony's ears prick at the question. Yes, this is something he wants to know, wanted to know since the moment he met his daughter. "Yes." She answers. "If my life was not in danger, I would have sent Tony an email, but I would not put my daughter at risk. Emails were not secured, and he would have never checked one."

"Yes I would've." He whispers, not daring to look at her.

"Pardon?" Jack asks from her seat, taking a second from her writing.

Tony takes a second long glance at his partner. "I checked my secured email every week for a year. Till the team told me to move on, that you weren't coming home." His voice was soft, hating how vulnerable he sounds. But when he looks up at her, he sees the pain in her eyes. "When Tali finally came into my life, and when I went for answers, Orli wouldn't tell me anything. She told me repeatedly that you were dead, in front of Tali."

"I told her to tell you that." Her voice was almost calm, maybe a slight break in her voice, but the rest of her was calm.

"Why?" He wants to cry, oh so much.

Their eyes meet, and he feels his heart skip a beat, a feeling he hadn't had in over six years. "Because, before anything else in the world, Tali's life needed to be nonexistent to the terrorist groups, as they have been for the last 6 years. I couldn't let you find me, not with her in tow. Her life would have been in danger the moment they realized who she was." She pauses, raising her hand to play with her necklace, a new one that Tony hasn't noticed before now. "I needed Gibbs to come find me instead, but he didn't."

He almost regrets stretching his hand to reach for her. "I tried to get him to look for you, to find you like we did before. But he… He already accepted it... Wouldn't help me… Or you."

"I know. I… I kind of yelled at him because of that." She ducks her head as she says it. The corner of his lips raised the slightest, but he could still feel it. All the things he wanted to say to his boss, she had said. She starts to raise her hand to meet his, but she lowers it slowly and resting it into her lap.

"I still wish you had told me." Calmly, he was going to try to be calm about this. He got his anger out, he yelled at her, he can do this calmly. "If I had known… If I knew you were pregnant, I would have been there in a heartbeat." He meets her eyes again, and he can swear he could see a tear in forming in her eyes.

His heart stops when she raises her hand and rests it on his. "The person I was, was a completely different person I was when you were there. I was depressed… Scared, maybe. It took me too long to figure out I was expecting Tali, and that frightened me even more. The few friends I had in Israel supported me emotionally." Her eyes shift him his green ones to their connecting hands, the warmth from her, the physical connection, proves to him that she is really here. She is alive. "But more than anything, I was too scared to tell you. I feared… Rejection."

Tony didn't notice Jack's jaw dropping as she writes down their interaction. As an outsider, someone who doesn't know their story, viewing a relationship with fourteen years in the making. "I could never reject you for coming to me with a pregnancy. Other women? Maybe. But I would man up, take responsibility. But for you? Always."

The tears flow freely down her cheeks.

"I am sorry, Tony."

"So am I." He places his other hand on top of hers, running his finger over a new scar, wondering if this was part of the story Gibbs had told him a week ago. The one about South America.

"Are… Can… Can we be friends again?" She asks, no, pleads.

He smiles at her. "I don't think we ever stopped."

With a single earbud in, McGee listens closely to the conversation that he can already hardly hear with the volume on his computer all the way up. They were whispering again, but he has no argument after the shock to his eardrum from all the yelling.

With the ding from the elevator, he quickly shuts it off, fearing the boss man would see him spying on his friends. But when he looks up, it's just Tali and Jimmy walking into the squad room. "Uncle Tim! Did you get them? Huh? Huh?" She asks, running up to his desk.

He smiles brightly. "I sure did! You were wonderful! I'm going to show your aunt and cousins them when I get home." Tali cheers and hugs him. He raises his head to Jimmy.

"I just got a call from another team, I have to go start my day." He says. "Can you watch her for a bit?" McGee understands that the ME didn't want to say anything about his job, not wanting to give the little girl nightmares.

"Oh sure, of course!" He says. "I'm sure Gibbs wouldn't mind us having a visitor for a little while."

"Oh thank you, McGee!" Tali gives her other uncle a hug before he leaves, not questioning him on why he had to leave so urgently.

McGee pulls Tali into his lap, giving her a kiss on the head, and starts playing videos on his computer.

By the time lunch had ended in the office, Tali was sitting in Ellie's chair eating an apple and chocolate milk and the rest of the team was nowhere to be found. Gibbs had only walked passed the bullpen with a coffee in his hand, but never stopped to say 'hi' to the little DiNozzo.

McGee wants to check the live feed for the conference room, but he knew that Tali was a curious little girl, she'd sneak up behind him and watch the screen as well if she knew it was keeping her uncle's concentration. So he read the news until Ellie and Nick came waltzing into the pen.

The first words out of Nick's mouth when he entered the bullpen was enough to bring a smile to his lips. "Um, whose child is this?" No one answers him as he stands in the middle of the room. He stares down at the child who stares back, giving him that smirk that McGee recognizes from when he watched the girl's parents interact. Only, he didn't know from which parent this smirk could have come from. But telling nonetheless. "You are…?" He asks the little girl directly.

She smiles sweetly at him, before faking an accent. "_Je m'appelle Tali DiNozzo_."

"DiNozzo? Why does that name sound familiar?" Nick asks thoughtfully. McGee is about to answer him when Ellie buts in.

"Tony DiNozzo, the Senior Field Agent before McGee. Ziva's partner." Tali gives them a questioning look. Nick's eyes widen, his lips making a silent 'oh' as his eyes dart between the two girls.

"Get back to work you two." Gibbs says walking into the bullpen with a coffee in his hand, not looking at the small girl. McGee knew that Gibbs had trouble bonding with Tali, and it was nothing to do the Rule 12 that he had made so long ago. No. He knew it was because every time Gibbs looked into the brown-eyed curly-haired little girl, he saw Ziva, and it made him miss his daughter even more.

McGee thought that now that Ziva made herself present, showing that she was indeed alive, that Gibbs would try to connect with the girl like he didn't before.

But only time would tell.

Suddenly the buzzing from his cell brought him to reality. It was Tony. _"We're coming down."_ The text said. His heart starts to race. _'We?'_ As in both of them? "Um, T-Tali, your father is coming down." Her eyes light up, not leaving her spot from Ellie's desk. The two other agents look over at him, and he gives them a look. Taking the hint, the two step away from the desk and head to Nick's.

A minute passes when Tony walks into the room slowly. "Aba!" Tali yells, throwing herself at him. "Are you done with the meeting yet? Are we going to go to the theatre now? Can I buy a new book for the flight home?"

Tony picks the girl up in a single swoop, balancing her on his stomach with his arms. "Slow down _bambina_." He laughs, and McGee no doubt thinks that having a daughter has made his friend younger after all those years of trying to date women all the same age. It was good for him. "First, I want you to meet someone. Someone who used to be in your life, but I don't think you'd remember." He can tell that the man's heart is racing, introducing the little girl to her mother.

The entire room watches as Tony turns his body to the shy woman standing a few feet behind him. Tali furrows her brow, looking the woman over. Positioning her body to be let down, Tony complies, then walking over to the woman. Ziva crouches down to match her height with hers, and McGee can see her holding back the tears.

Face to face, Tali looks her over, confused and trying to remember. The office holds their breath as the little girl reaches forward and places her fingers on the necklace around Ziva's neck. "I remember this…" She asks innocently. "I gave this to my Ima, I held onto it when she sang me a song every night." Ziva nods, the tears forming. "Ima?"

"Yes _motek_, yes."


End file.
